DirecTV to offer games online without DirecTV sat subscription

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

Apparently, kind of makes sense as if you've previously had DTV at thta address hard ot argue you can't get it now, unless something was built in the sight line, or you had it but service was terrible and mabe was documented.

 

A few years back I went from RR to DSL for internet service. (Got DTV in place of cable) Had nothing but problems. After about 2 t o 3 months DTV admitted they couldn't fix it gave me all my money back that I paid over the three month period. DSL told me that sometimes this happens and they can't figure it out. House next door could be great, but you could have terrible problems. Basically ended up with three months of free, but not too good internet service. Went back to RR with my tail between my legs now, what do they do, give me a new subscriber discount.. If they had given me even half this discount in the beginning, never would have even left.

 

so, the answer has to be "no" to all 3 to qualify?

[Rico]

I would consider it, but that's a lot of coin to drop without being able to first see what the quality looks like. They should've given away for free a few games from the last week of pre-season.

[The Dean]

I would consider it, but that's a lot of coin to drop without being able to first see what the quality looks like. They should've given away for free a few games from the last week of pre-season.

 

 

Or made them very inexpensive to buy and test.

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

I figure besides the Bill's there's some other games I wouldn't mind seeing. I live in the Pathers TV zone so their games are all on regular TV. This will give me the change to watch something else instead of them.

[stevewin]

I'm in

 

Does anyone know - are there options with this to watch complete game replays? I guess there are highlight and redzone replays avail (?) - but what about full game replays? Do I need ot keep my NFL rewind subscription too?

[birdog1960]

Apparently, kind of makes sense as if you've previously had DTV at thta address hard ot argue you can't get it now, unless something was built in the sight line, or you had it but service was terrible and mabe was documented.

 

A few years back I went from RR to DSL for internet service. (Got DTV in place of cable) Had nothing but problems. After about 2 t o 3 months DTV admitted they couldn't fix it gave me all my money back that I paid over the three month period. DSL told me that sometimes this happens and they can't figure it out. House next door could be great, but you could have terrible problems. Basically ended up with three months of free, but not too good internet service. Went back to RR with my tail between my legs now, what do they do, give me a new subscriber discount.. If they had given me even half this discount in the beginning, never would have even left.

then you said "yes" to ever having DTV? i dumped it about 5 years ago because of lack of local stations in hd at the time and refusal to allow national network feeds in lieu of locals. also have huge oak trees that made reception undependable. they're now 5 years bigger and it'll only be worse...guess i'll just have to try and see what happens or i could say "no" to all 3 and see if they check on prior service. it just sucks that they bend you over to sell you a $350 license (btw, anybody look at the fine print- they take no responsibility for picture or stream quality).

Edited September 9, 2010 by birdog1960

[MaineMoxie]

$29 a month for porn? Seriously? That's crazy.

 

People actually pay for porn?

[GOBILLS78]

I figure besides the Bill's there's some other games I wouldn't mind seeing. I live in the Pathers TV zone so their games are all on regular TV. This will give me the change to watch something else instead of them.

 

Can I come over?

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

Actually the question was did you ever have DTV at your current address. When I had DTV was back when I lived in Rochester, so I correctly answered No!

 

then you said "yes" to ever having DTV? i dumped it about 5 years ago because of lack of local stations in hd at the time and refusal to allow national network feeds in lieu of locals. also have huge oak trees that made reception undependable. they're now 5 years bigger and it'll only be worse...guess i'll just have to try and see what happens or i could say "no" to all 3 and see if they check on prior service. it just sucks that they bend you over to sell you a $350 license (btw, anybody look at the fine print- they take no responsibility for picture or stream quality).

[Peace]

Not that it was worth $350 to see that crap...but...

 

With the exception of the first 5 minutes when the Bills stream was inexplicably unavailable, the stream worked 100% perfectly today. Not a single freeze. Minor pixellation here and there. Blew it up to full screen and could see the ball well. Hopped between games all game long at commercial. Picture in picture feature is new this year and worked well to let me know when the Bills were back.

 

Overall, very good experience and I truly believe the first 5 minutes was a one-time issue as I've not seen that behavior in the last 2 years.

[Cugalabanza]

I paid my $350. For the first game, the quality was just ok. On HIGH quality, it was very skippy and jerky. So I watched the game on MEDIUM quality. Even still, there were some freezes here and there.

 

I had the thought that maybe it would work better with Explorer instead of Firefox. I'll experiment a little bit this week. I'd really like to be able to bump it up to that higher bitrate. The fast action is not so smooth on Medium.

 

I also noticed that DirectTV decided just recently to use the Flash player instead of Silverlight. I wish they didn't do that. I believe Netflix uses Silverlight and that works beautifully for me. I've never had a single problem with any Netflix streams and it looks amazing.

[The Dean]

I paid my $350. For the first game, the quality was just ok. On HIGH quality, it was very skippy and jerky. So I watched the game on MEDIUM quality. Even still, there were some freezes here and there.

 

I had the thought that maybe it would work better with Explorer instead of Firefox. I'll experiment a little bit this week. I'd really like to be able to bump it up to that higher bitrate. The fast action is not so smooth on Medium.

 

I also noticed that DirectTV decided just recently to use the Flash player instead of Silverlight. I wish they didn't do that. I believe Netflix uses Silverlight and that works beautifully for me. I've never had a single problem with any Netflix streams and it looks amazing.

 

 

What do you use for Internet, gringo? What kind of download speed you get?

[Cugalabanza]

What do you use for Internet, gringo? What kind of download speed you get?

It's Comcast cable internet, wireless to my laptop. I don't know what kind of numbers I get, but I think it's fairly good. My laptop always reports an "Excellent" connection. I use a quality wireless router. I never have any problems with Netflix or other streamed video.

[The Dean]

It's Comcast cable internet, wireless to my laptop. I don't know what kind of numbers I get, but I think it's fairly good. My laptop always reports an "Excellent" connection. I use a quality wireless router. I never have any problems with Netflix or other streamed video.

 

If you have Comcast, I'm guessing you have good download speed, unless there is an issue (which happens from time to time).

 

If you care to, check your speed here:

 

http://speedtest.net/

[Fezmid]

It's Comcast cable internet, wireless to my laptop. I don't know what kind of numbers I get, but I think it's fairly good. My laptop always reports an "Excellent" connection. I use a quality wireless router. I never have any problems with Netflix or other streamed video.

 

What kind of computer do you have? On the high setting, you'll need a more powerful machine to decode the HD video.

 

I had a dual Opteron workstation that I built a few years ago that was not able to use the "DirecTV2PC" tool for HD content. It wasn't fast enough to do the decode.

 

I love Netflix streaming, but most of their stuff is not HD - it's SD. See above.

[Cugalabanza]

If you have Comcast, I'm guessing you have good download speed, unless there is an issue (which happens from time to time).

 

If you care to, check your speed here:

 

http://speedtest.net/

Thanks! I'm curious to check that out when I get home.

[The Dean]

What kind of computer do you have? On the high setting, you'll need a more powerful machine to decode the HD video.

 

I had a dual Opteron workstation that I built a few years ago that was not able to use the "DirecTV2PC" tool for HD content. It wasn't fast enough to do the decode.

 

I love Netflix streaming, but most of their stuff is not HD - it's SD. See above.

 

 

Thanks! I'm curious to check that out when I get home.

 

 

You might want to check your computer as well, as Fez notes. Here are the minimum requirements according to DTV:

 

http://support.directv.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2031/session/L3NpZC9ZYjhCT2Fhaw%3D%3D/p/813/r_id/104513/sno/0

 

A DIRECTV2PC-compliant computer must meet the minimum system recommendations, which are: Dual core CPU, 512 MB Ram, 256 MB Graphics, and Windows XP with Service Pack 2.

 

I believe there is a tool on the site that tests your computer, too. I'm guessing the minimum isn't good enough for great HD, though.

[Cugalabanza]

What kind of computer do you have? On the high setting, you'll need a more powerful machine to decode the HD video.

 

I had a dual Opteron workstation that I built a few years ago that was not able to use the "DirecTV2PC" tool for HD content. It wasn't fast enough to do the decode.

 

I love Netflix streaming, but most of their stuff is not HD - it's SD. See above.

It's nothing fancy. It's a Toshiba laptop I bought about 6 months ago for $500. I couldn't tell you any stats, but it does have an Intel dual-core processor.

 

I think I need to play with the settings on the DirectTV stream. The thing is, my laptop only has a VGA output, not HDMI, so I'm only working with SD anyway when I send it to the tv. Maybe I can go with a higher bitrate and refresh rate if I choose an SD stream instead of HD. I don't know why I didn't think of that before.

 

Thanks for the input!

[Cugalabanza]

If you have Comcast, I'm guessing you have good download speed, unless there is an issue (which happens from time to time).

 

If you care to, check your speed here:

 

http://speedtest.net/

21 mb/s

 

That's pretty good, no?

[The Dean]

21 mb/s

 

That's pretty good, no?

 

 

Fantastic